Bread and butter.

The phrase connotes simplicity, and it simply means "This is what works."

Nursing a 21-14 lead over Wasatch with about 13 1/2 minutes remaining in the 3A state football semifinal, Juan Diego Catholic went to its "bread and butter."

Simply put, that's running the football. And it's a major reason why Juan Diego turned a close game into a 35-14 victory Thursday at Rice-Eccles Stadium to advance to next week's state title game.

The Soaring Eagle, led by backs Tana Vea and Lars Gunderson, first put together a 10-play, 79-yard drive that ate 4:07 off the game clock.

Gunderson got Juan Diego into Wasp territory with a 20-yard run, and Vea — who proved to be difficult to tackle all game — capped off the drive with a 24-yard scoring burst to give the Soaring Eagle a two-touchdown lead.

Juan Diego later got the ball back at the Wasatch 46 with just less than eight minutes to play and again stuck to the ground. This time, despite the short field, Juan Diego was able to milk 4:43 out of the clock on nine rushes. Vea — who found lots of running room on the right side to finish with 187 yards on 30 carries — had his number called on eight of those runs, the last one a 2-yard plunge for his third touchdown.

Juan Diego proverbially took the air out of the ball and deflated any hope Wasatch had of an upset on The Turf.

"We wanted to keep the ball on the ground and score some points," Juan Diego coach John Colosimo said.

"Our linemen ... opened big things up for me, and I just run through the hole," Vea added. "Any running back could do it."

With a wall composed of Jalin Ames, Denny Midgley, Christian Ika, Taylor Campbell and Trevor Greene, he's probably right.

Lest anyone forget, another component of Juan Diego's "bread and butter" is its stingy 7.6 ppg defense. In the first half, Wasatch found holes in that defense. Receiver Cory Nielson was open on crossing routes to haul in four passes for 61 yards in the early going. Wasps quarterback Payton Davis also hit some seams to rush for 69 yards in the half.

"They caught us off guard ... we had to make some adjustments in the second half," Colosimo said. "We came out and tried to deny the inside pass and stop the run."

And it worked. In the last two quarters, the Soaring Eagle contained Davis, held Nielson to two catches, and kept Wasatch on its own side of the field and off the scoreboard.

"We shut down their receivers ... that's what we had to do," Juan Diego lineman Daniel Jimenez said.

e-mail: rtrishman@desnews.com